How to use Application.Windows in the xlwings API way

The Application.Windows property in Excel’s object model provides a collection of all open workbook windows. In xlwings, this property is accessible through the app object, which represents the Excel application instance. It is particularly useful for programmatically managing and interacting with multiple workbook windows, such as iterating through them to perform actions like arranging, resizing, or closing windows based on specific conditions. This property is read-only and returns a Windows collection object, enabling developers to handle window-level operations efficiently within their automation scripts.

Syntax in xlwings:
app.api.Windows
Here, app is an instance of the xlwings App class, which connects to the Excel application. The .api attribute provides direct access to the underlying Excel object model, allowing you to use the Windows property. The returned collection can be indexed or iterated over, with each item representing a Window object corresponding to an open workbook window. For example, app.api.Windows[0] refers to the first window in the collection, typically the most recently activated window. Note that the order of windows in this collection may vary based on user interactions, so it’s advisable to reference windows by their Caption property (the window title) for more reliable access.

Example Usage:
Below is a practical xlwings code example that demonstrates how to use the Application.Windows property to list all open workbook windows and perform a simple action, such as arranging them in a tiled layout. This example assumes Excel is already running with multiple workbooks open.

import xlwings as xw

# Connect to the active Excel application instance
app = xw.apps.active

# Access the Windows collection via the .api attribute
windows = app.api.Windows

# Print the Caption (title) of each open window
print("Open workbook windows:")
for window in windows:
    print(f" - {window.Caption}")

# Arrange all windows in a tiled layout (Excel constant xlTiled = 1)
# This organizes windows side-by-side without overlapping
windows.Arrange(Style=1) # Style 1 corresponds to xlTiled

# Optionally, you can close a specific window by its Caption
# For instance, close a window titled "SalesData.xlsx"
for window in windows:
    if window.Caption == "SalesData.xlsx":
    window.Close()
    print("Closed SalesData.xlsx window.")
    break

# Note: The Arrange method affects only visible windows. Hidden or minimized windows may not be rearranged.